I was planning on having my players encounter Venomfang in Thundertree, as a set up for jumping into Hoard of the Dragon Queen / Rise of Tiamat. My original idea was that the Archfey Warlock's Patron was going to ask a favor, to actually kill Agatha, as she is a blight on Neverwinter. However, the party is just about to jump into Cragmaw Castle and I felt that these side quests are becoming a slog, so instead I should do something that advances the story toward the greater campaign. So instead, I turned to having the Patron ask them to find the corruption in Thundertree. I would do a short time jump after Wave Echo Cave, and Venomfang would return to attacking Phandalin allied with the cultists. I'd use elements of Hoard of the Dragon Queen until the party reached Waterdeep, and then I'd probably jump right into Rise of Tiamat instead of finishing the second half of Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
The issue I have is that I read one or two DMs and they found that Venomfang one shot most of the party with his poison breath. And then his party re-rolled, went back at higher level, and died AGAIN. I figure that I can roleplay Venomfang to not immediately attack, especially if they are speaking with the cultists, and to give the players a chance to roll Perception / Insight into exactly how evil and powerful this dragon is compared to them. I could also make it's breath significantly weaker or have it target the cultists.
I would also make the players very situationally aware as to the presence of cover, etc. That is Venomfang is in the Wizard's Tower, but would spend some of its attacks destroying their cover.
I expect the party to be only 3 or 4 level 4 players at this point. At level 3, a swarm of 9 stirge playing optimally, with players running sub optimally, was enough to almost kill them! I was originally going to do 12 Stirge, but lowered the count right before the fight... and I'm glad I did.
You can do many things it's your adventure and you can tune accordingly. I made reidoth a mage, instead of a druid they needed to find him to cure their lycanthropy, and he would only help if the beat the dragon. Then added a whole new backstory to venomfang, whereby something happened to him making him weaker and how the cultists sacrificed villagers yearly that empowered Venomfang making him strong again but he had to do it every year.
So During the sacrifice he was weakened and could not fly which gave them the ability to defeat him. I was an amazing 5 hour epic battle where one PC was gloriously ripped in two and everyone rallied to defeat the dragon.
Just be creative they only know what you tell them.
You could always pit them against Venomfang and then have the cultists help him escape after he takes so much amount of damage. OR you could knock him down from a young dragon to a wyrmling. If your party goes and fights any cultists in the area (also don't be afraid to have Reidoth aid them in driving off the green dragon) maybe Venomfang decides to retreat and not go up against them. Or some of the cultists (depending on dragon age) scurry off with Venomfang to protect him.
If you're going to skip the first half of HotDQ, you need to do something to set up what kind of threat the Cult of the Dragon is. Having the party lose to them and one of their dragon allies is a pretty good way to do that. (That's all the first part of HotDQ is designed to do- establish the threat. How you get your party aware of the threat and believing in it is your discretion.)
My plan was to actually replace the SECOND half of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I was planning on replacing Greenest with Phandalin, and having Sildar fight the Dragonborn Lieutenant if every party member refuses to be the champion. They've known him for such a long time that if he dies, they'll feel pretty guilty. Then I was going to level adjust the encounters in the dragon wyrmling cave, having it take place on the east side of Neverwinter Wood, along the river, just outside the forest between Longsaddle and Triboar to introduce them to new base locations for the first time.
I've also heard that the merchant train from Baldur's Gate north to Waterdeep could become a slog, so I was planning on changing it to having the party travel down river to Yartar to meet the merchant train, shortening it to a week's journey south to Waterdeep. Since Yartar is a cutthroat trading town, I really liked the bar brawl elements from Critical Role a few months back, so I was going to try and mimic it as they tried getting jobs on the merchant train from unscrupulous mercenary companies.
One of the party members is already a Harper, so once they get to Waterdeep, I'll probably end Hoard of the Dragon Queen there with just some intel, or at the Castle in the Mere of Dead Men, combining some of the roleplaying encounters from the Hunter's Lodge / Cloud Giant castle. I figure the party will already be level 6 or 7 by the time they get to Waterdeep!
I was planning on having my players encounter Venomfang in Thundertree, as a set up for jumping into Hoard of the Dragon Queen / Rise of Tiamat. My original idea was that the Archfey Warlock's Patron was going to ask a favor, to actually kill Agatha, as she is a blight on Neverwinter. However, the party is just about to jump into Cragmaw Castle and I felt that these side quests are becoming a slog, so instead I should do something that advances the story toward the greater campaign. So instead, I turned to having the Patron ask them to find the corruption in Thundertree. I would do a short time jump after Wave Echo Cave, and Venomfang would return to attacking Phandalin allied with the cultists. I'd use elements of Hoard of the Dragon Queen until the party reached Waterdeep, and then I'd probably jump right into Rise of Tiamat instead of finishing the second half of Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
The issue I have is that I read one or two DMs and they found that Venomfang one shot most of the party with his poison breath. And then his party re-rolled, went back at higher level, and died AGAIN. I figure that I can roleplay Venomfang to not immediately attack, especially if they are speaking with the cultists, and to give the players a chance to roll Perception / Insight into exactly how evil and powerful this dragon is compared to them. I could also make it's breath significantly weaker or have it target the cultists.
I would also make the players very situationally aware as to the presence of cover, etc. That is Venomfang is in the Wizard's Tower, but would spend some of its attacks destroying their cover.
I expect the party to be only 3 or 4 level 4 players at this point. At level 3, a swarm of 9 stirge playing optimally, with players running sub optimally, was enough to almost kill them! I was originally going to do 12 Stirge, but lowered the count right before the fight... and I'm glad I did.
You can do many things it's your adventure and you can tune accordingly. I made reidoth a mage, instead of a druid they needed to find him to cure their lycanthropy, and he would only help if the beat the dragon. Then added a whole new backstory to venomfang, whereby something happened to him making him weaker and how the cultists sacrificed villagers yearly that empowered Venomfang making him strong again but he had to do it every year.
So During the sacrifice he was weakened and could not fly which gave them the ability to defeat him. I was an amazing 5 hour epic battle where one PC was gloriously ripped in two and everyone rallied to defeat the dragon.
Just be creative they only know what you tell them.
You could always pit them against Venomfang and then have the cultists help him escape after he takes so much amount of damage. OR you could knock him down from a young dragon to a wyrmling. If your party goes and fights any cultists in the area (also don't be afraid to have Reidoth aid them in driving off the green dragon) maybe Venomfang decides to retreat and not go up against them. Or some of the cultists (depending on dragon age) scurry off with Venomfang to protect him.
If you're going to skip the first half of HotDQ, you need to do something to set up what kind of threat the Cult of the Dragon is. Having the party lose to them and one of their dragon allies is a pretty good way to do that. (That's all the first part of HotDQ is designed to do- establish the threat. How you get your party aware of the threat and believing in it is your discretion.)
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My plan was to actually replace the SECOND half of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I was planning on replacing Greenest with Phandalin, and having Sildar fight the Dragonborn Lieutenant if every party member refuses to be the champion. They've known him for such a long time that if he dies, they'll feel pretty guilty. Then I was going to level adjust the encounters in the dragon wyrmling cave, having it take place on the east side of Neverwinter Wood, along the river, just outside the forest between Longsaddle and Triboar to introduce them to new base locations for the first time.
I've also heard that the merchant train from Baldur's Gate north to Waterdeep could become a slog, so I was planning on changing it to having the party travel down river to Yartar to meet the merchant train, shortening it to a week's journey south to Waterdeep. Since Yartar is a cutthroat trading town, I really liked the bar brawl elements from Critical Role a few months back, so I was going to try and mimic it as they tried getting jobs on the merchant train from unscrupulous mercenary companies.
One of the party members is already a Harper, so once they get to Waterdeep, I'll probably end Hoard of the Dragon Queen there with just some intel, or at the Castle in the Mere of Dead Men, combining some of the roleplaying encounters from the Hunter's Lodge / Cloud Giant castle. I figure the party will already be level 6 or 7 by the time they get to Waterdeep!